Privacy Policy

At Rural & Business Specialists Ltd we take the security of your information seriously.  This policy sets out what data we collect from you, how we use it, store it and your rights.  Personal data means any information capable of identifying an individual and does not include anonymised data.  

Who we are

Rural and Business Specialists Ltd are commercial finance brokers based in Kent and Yorkshire. Our registered office is 89 King St, Maidstone ME14 1BG, and registered at Companies House - number 5080937. We are authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority - number 724325.

What data we collect

You directly provide us with most of the data we collect when you email us, enquire about our services online or provide us with data for us to consider your request for our services, engage with us either virtually or in face-to-face meetings.

This includes:

• personal identification information such as your name, email address, phone number, etc.
• profile information such as your marital status, date of birth, details of your profession and work history or skills
• financial information such as your bank account details, your financial position and history
• contractual information such as those you may agree with us or those you enter into with a third party such as a lender
• usage information such as how you have accessed our website, email newsletters, your IP address etc.
• communications may include your preference for receiving marketing communications from us.

We may also get data about you from third parties such as your current financial and professional advisers such as valuer, accountant and solicitor and your bank.  In order to provide our service to you, we will need to provide banks and other lenders with your data and will liaise with other professional advisers about you, sharing your data as appropriate.  If you do not consent to us providing this information, we will be unable to deliver our service to you.

How we will use your data

We will use your data to fulfil the contract we have with you and only when we have a legitimate business reason for doing.

You will give us consent to use your data by signing our GDPR form. We would like to send you news about our industry, products and services which may be by post, email or telephone.  You have the right to opt out at any time by using the Unsubscribe link that will always be included in our marketing communications.

Who we may share your information with

We may share your information with banks, lenders and other companies as this is necessary for us to provide our service to you.   

When you authorise us to submit all application on your behalf, the lender may share your information with a credit agency and fraud prevention agencies.  They may perform searches which will leave a footprint on your credit file.  Please contact them if you would like to read the full details of how they may use your data.

We may also share your name, address and contact details with a third party who provide us with support services and who may process your data on our behalf.  We will have contracts in place with all such entities which require them to process your data only in accordance with our instructions.

We may also disclose your personal information in the following situations:

• if R&BS is sold to a third party, in which case personal data held by R&BS will one of the transferred assets
• if we are under a duty to disclose or share your personal data to comply with any legal obligation.  This includes exchanging information with other organisations for the purposes of fraud protection and credit risk reduction.

Transferring your data outside of the EEA

For the purposes of IT hosting, maintenance and marketing, your information may be located on servers within the EU and may be transferred to and stored of the EEA.  If we do transfer information outside of the EEA we make sure we use one of the following safeguards:

• we will only transfer your personal data to a country with privacy laws that offer the same protection as the EEA
• we use contracts with the recipients to ensure they give personal data the same protection it has in the EEA
• we transfer data to organisations part of the EU-US Privacy Shield.  This requires them to provide similar protection to personal data shared between the US and countries in the EEA.

How we store your data

We will not keep your personal data for longer than is necessary unless we are required to do so for legal or regulatory purposes.  Data relating to mortgage applications will be retained by us in a secure way for a period of six years.  

Your legal rights 

You have the right at any time to stop our Company from contacting you for marketing purposes.  You also have:

• The right to access – you can request our Company for copies of your personal data
• The right to rectification – you can ask us to correct any information you believe is inaccurate and to complete the information you believe is incomplete
• The right to erasure – you can request that we erase your personal data under certain conditions
• The right to restrict processing – you can request that we restrict processing of your personal data under certain conditions
• The right to object to processing – you can object to our processing of your data under certain conditions
• The right to data portability – you can ask us to transfer the data we have collected to another organisation, or directly to you, under certain conditions.

Other important points about our website and your information

Our website uses Cookies which are text files placed on your computer to collect standard internet information and visitor behaviour information.  When you visit our website, we may collect information from you automatically through cookies or similar technology.  For more details on how we use cookies, please see our Cookies and Analytics page.  You can set your browser not to use cookies.

External links

Our website contains links to and from other third-party websites or social media sites.  We cannot be held responsible for the security of these sites and we advise users to read the privacy policies of other websites before registering any personal data.

Changes to this policy

We keep this Privacy Policy under regular review.  

How to contact us

If you have any questions about our privacy policy, the data we hold on you, or would like to exercise your data protection rights, please do not hesitate to contact us by writing to Robert Lister, Rural & Business Specialists Ltd, Nurstead Court, Nurstead Lane, Nurstead, Nr Gravesend, Kent. DA13 9AD

How to contact the appropriate authority

Rural and Business Specialists Ltd is authorised and regulated by the FCA with reference number 724325.

Should you wish to report a complaint or if you feel we have not addressed a concern you have raised in a satisfactory manner, you may contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.                                            

R&BS Privacy Policy February 2024